Creating a reference list

Each source that is cited in the text needs a corresponding entry in the reference list. The entry should contain enough identifying information about the source to allow it to be located by someone else. The information is presented as parts in a set order to help the reader identify at a glance which piece of information relates to which part.

A basic APA reference entry is made up of the following parts:

Author + Year + Title+ Publisher Information or DOI or URL

Below are instructions for formatting the parts of an APA reference entry. When you are ready to create your entries, read the instructions and copy the punctuation used in the examples. Note that every part ends with a full stop, except DOIs and URLs, and a space follows each punctuation mark.

Author

Who created the source?

  • This identifies the creator or principal contributor of the source.
  • It could be a person or a group (organisation or government).
  • Some sources may have more than one author.

One author

Give the author’s surname, a comma, and the initials of their given names.

Winton, T. (2001). Dirt music. Picador.

2–20 authors

Name all authors. Separate by commas and join the last author by ‘&’.

Hall, J. L., & Ashton, B. T. (2005). A spoonful of valour…

21 or more authors

Name the first nineteen authors and the last author. Join the last author by three dots (‘…’).

Wiskunde, B., Arslan, M., Fischer, P., Nowak, L., Van den Berg, O., Coetzee, L., Juárez, U., Riyaziyyat, E., Wang, C., Zhang, I., Li, P., Yang, R., Kumar, B., Xu, A., Martinez, R., McIntosh, V., Ibáñez, L. M., Mäkinen, G., Virtanen, E., . . . Kovács, A.

Group author (government or organisation)

Give the name of the group in full, even if you have abbreviated it within the text.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2004). Australia’s health …

Year

Publication year/date

When was the source published?

  • This identifies the year or specific date the source was made available in the version you accessed. (Use the copyright year/date if this is shown).
  • For online sources, use the year or specific date the content was created (for a page or document), or the date of posting (for a post).

What to include:

  • Enclose year of publication in round brackets.
  • Add month and day for sources with specific publication dates, such as newspapers. (Give only year in in-text citation).

Winton, T. (2001). Dirt music. Picador.

Greendale, N. (2006, May 4). Road toll rising. The Age, 13.

Same author, Same year

List each work alphabetically by title and add a lower case letter (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc.) to the year to reflect the order the entry appears in the reference list, e.g., ‘a’ for the first entry, ‘b’ for the second entry, etc.

Harris, D. W. (2001a). Hadrian’s wall …

Harris, D. W. (2001b). Julius Caesar …

No year/date

Use ‘n.d.’ (stands for ‘no date’) if no year/date can be found on the source.

Gardiner, I. T. (n.d.). Life in rural Australia …

Title

What is the source called?

  • This is the full title in the exact words and spelling of the source.
  • If your source is part of a larger work (e.g., article from a journal; chapter from a book), you need to include the title of each.

What to include:

  • Give the title in italics in the exact wording and spelling shown on the source.
  • Separate the title and subtitle by a colon.
  • Give initial capitals to the first word of the title and the subtitle, and to any proper nouns.
  • Give both titles if the source is part of a larger work. No italics are used for parts of works.

Harris, M. (1983). The mighty Yarra: Rivers of Victoria. … TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Gerd, N. B. (2001). Method in action. Journal of Health, … PART OF & WHOLE WORK

Edition number

  • Different edition: Add edition number (in round brackets, no italics) to the title. Edition information is only given for editions other than the first. If no edition statement is shown on the book, assume it’s the first and no statement is needed.
  • Multi-volume: Add volume number/s (in round brackets, no italics) to title. Give all volumes (e.g., ‘3 vols.’) if citing a whole work; or volume number (e.g., ‘Vol. 2’) if citing an individual volume.

Bandman, E., & Bandman, B. (2002). Nursing ethics through the life span (4th ed.). Prentice Hall.

No title

If there is no title, give a brief descriptive title in your own words in square brackets with no italics.

Jensen, P. R. (1945). [Wartime navy reminiscences]. Liberty Press.

Publication information

Who made the source available in the form I used?

  • This identifies the publisher.
  • You need to include this information for print books and physical or broadcast media.
  • For online sources, you will usually use a DOI or URL.
  • The information can usually be found with the copyright information.

What to include:

  • The publisher of a print source or broadcast media.
  • If the publisher is also the author, omit the publisher from the reference instead of repeating the name.
  • The location is only needed if the material is associated with a particular location, such as a conference.
  • A DOI if the source has one
  • The URL for online sources if there is no DOI

Gourley, D. (2002). Action man. Bellinger.

Carbonation, L. A. (2012). Can we use MR-mammography to predict nodal status? European Journal of Radiology, 81(1), 17-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0720-048x(12)70007-4

Gull Group. (1992). Annual report.

DOI

Is there a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)?

  • The DOI acts as a permanent link to an item. Not all online material has a DOI but you need to include one if it has, even for print material.
  • If you provide a DOI, you don’t give the URL.
  • If a DOI has been assigned, you should find it with the copyright information, or with other details on database or catalogue lists.
  • There is no full stop at the end. It needs to be prefixed with http:// or https://

http://doi.org/10.1086/529076

Uniform Resource Locator [URL] and retrieval date

What is the address of the source online, and when did I retrieve it?

  • This is included for sources accessed online that do not have a DOI. It tells your reader the location of the source on the Internet.
  • Provide the URL that links directly to the source.
  • When a website is the source for a webpage, give the website name before the URL.
  • The retrieval date is only included for content that is designed to change over time, such as social media posts. In this case, preface the URL with Retrieved Year, Month Day, from http://xxxxx

Walker, A. (2019, November 14). Germany avoids recession but growth remains weak. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50419127